Take a moment to celebrate the successful rapper and businessman with some lesser-known trivia about his life.
Shawn Corey Carter, better known as JAY-Z, was born 51 years ago today in Brooklyn, New York. The list of accomplishments he’s achieved since his 1996 debut release, Reasonable Doubt, are too long to list here. Instead, here are 11 little-known facts about the influential rapper.1) He made Grammy history last month. JAY-Z recently became tied for the most Grammy nominations in history with 80. He shares that distinction with legendary producer Quincy Jones. He’s also married to the person who currently holds the record for second most Grammy nominations: Beyoncé’s 9 nominations at the end of November put her at 79 over the course of her career.2) His childhood friends also became stars. He attended Brooklyn’s George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School with future rappers The Notorious B.I.G., DMX, and Busta Rhymes. He remained close with Biggie throughout the late rapper’s life and was one of the last people to speak with him on the phone prior to the shooting that took his life in 1997.3) He has lofty ambitions–sometimes too lofty. JAY-Z wanted to use a NASA space shuttle as a stage prop during his 2011 « Watch the Throne » tour with Kanye West. However, the plan was scrapped due to the prohibitive cost of buying and transporting it. (At 180 feet tall, the spacecraft was also too large to fit into music venues.) 4) He was a child prodigy. His sixth grade teacher, Renee Rosenblum-Lowden, told The Washington Post in 2018 that HOVA tested at a twelfth grade reading level while in the sixth grade.
